After hearing about a member of my family having a birthday party and none of her classmates showing up, I was always terrified that this would happen to me.

There's something so heartbreaking about imagining a child, excitedly waiting in her home, decorated with balloons and streamers, for the doorbell to ring. And, hour upon hour, no one shows.

This, likely, could set the tone for how a child views herself for the rest of her life.

So, what do you do if this happens to your child?

After all the girls invited to her daughter's birthday party either cancelled or failed to RSVP, a Minnesota woman took to social media to rectify this — posting on several community Facebook pages, inviting strangers with children the same age to stop by the party.

ABC News reports that more than 400 people showed up — including Minnesota Vikings player Charles Johnson, characters Elsa and Snoopy from a nearby amusement park, and local firemen.

Mackenzie Moretter, who turned 10 years old last week, is diagnosed with Sotos syndrome, a genetic condition causing physical overgrowth during the first years of life and learning disabilities.

Mackenzie’s mother, Jenny, told ABC News that she hopes her daughter's story encourages tolerance of children who are different.

“I just want people to know they should accept their children for who they are,” she said. “And for kids who see other kids alone, I’d love to encourage them to go say hi and definitely not make fun of them.”

I had recently graduated from a Catholic school, where needless to say, I was pretty innocent.

Within six months of graduation, I had my first boyfriend, my first kiss, my first heartbreak, my first drink of alcohol, and my first tattoo. Friends were moving away to go to college, and everything felt like it was changing.

It may not seem like much, but, all of that in such a short time felt overwhelming to me.

My best friend says that, out of everyone she knows, I changed the most since high school. After high school, I felt like I had gone from being a child to being an adult almost overnight.

Sawyer (left) with his siblings Sullivan and Madylin in 2004.

And, for me personally, I was terrified.

I started thinking about where I was at that age because of the suicide of a 19-year-old on Thursday morning, weeks away from his 20th birthday. It made me think about how hard that age was for me. Even though I thankfully never took action, with all these new and overwhelming emotions swirling inside me, the thought definitely crossed my mind – “Maybe it would be easier if I wasn’t alive.”

I wonder if that’s what crossed the mind of former “Everybody Loves Raymond” actor Sawyer Sweeten before he took his life.

I admit when I heard of his death, the first thing I thought was, “He was so young. Was his life even that hard?” And I immediately wanted to slap myself when I thought that.

It’s easy to judge and think,” How could he do this! He was at the precipice of his life. What could have been so bad?”
But we weren’t inside of his mind. We don’t know what he was feeling. And I can understand how age 19 can be tough.

Sawyer’s family said he showed no suicidal tendencies. Not everyone who is depressed or considers suicide is obvious about it. You probably know someone right now who is going through this – and you don’t even know it.

So parents, hold your children a little bit closer tonight and tell them you love them. For me, when I was 19, that was when my mom suggested I go to counseling for the first time – and it helped.
Tell your children to never be afraid to talk to you if they need help. Tell them you will always be there for them and that you will never judge them.

This is what “Everybody Loves Raymond” co-star Doris Roberts said on Facebook, “It is with great sadness that I learned the news that Sawyer Sweeten, who played my grandson Geoffrey Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, died at his family's home in Texas”

“Make sure your loved ones know how much you care about them, and please check in with them if you haven't touched base with them for a while. It's very important to keep in touch.”

When I was in college, a young man walking around campus approached me and told me that he was selling magazine subscriptions as a way to help him pay for his tuition.

And, since I felt bad for the guy, I sat down with him and agreed to purchase two subscriptions. I knew something seemed suspicious when he said I had to pay for it in full in cash right then. But I ignored the red flags and gave this man all of the money in my wallet -- including my lunch money for the day.

Surprise, surprise, it was a scam and I never received my subscription.

The older we get, it seems, the less likely we are to trust others. I trust others way less than I did back then. But while I have gotten better at deciphering scams, I still have trouble determining who to trust in everyday life.

I have started to expect people to let me down. I'll meet someone and think, "It's just a matter of time before this person screws me over." But I will try to push it out of my head and think, "I need to stop expecting the worse." But this makes it hurt even worse when I finally let my guard down, finally trust someone, and I get screwed over and used just the same.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to experience this. Somedays it's tempting to just become a hermit — take refuge inside my apartment where no one can hurt me. But I know this is unrealistic and would be a very lonely existence.

So what should you do? How do you walk that thin line between protecting yourself from getting hurt and becoming a paranoid person who thinks everyone is out to get you? How do you distinguish genuine people from those feeding you a line of crap?

Here's some tips on how to learn if you can trust someone who has recently entered your life:

• Don't disclose personal information about yourself when you first meet someone, Dr. Phil says, and instead listen to the other person. Why should you tell them something about you if they're not willing to do the same? This is something I struggle with because I usually say whatever I'm thinking. But, as Dr. Phil says on oprah.com, "When you tell people what you're thinking or doing, you are making a decision to empower them with information, and you may be unintentionally giving them ammunition they can use to exploit you, compete with you or somehow get in your way." Don't feel like you need to fill a void in conversation; sometimes it's best just to be quiet.

• Determine if the person has something to gain by acting against your interest, Marty Nemko Ph.D. wrote in Psychology Today.

• Does this person's words match their actions? According to expressivecounseling.com, "When trustworthy people say something will happen, it usually does."

• Look for the traditional signs to tell if someone is lying, which, according to healthguidance.org, are: They avoid eye contact or stare at you more than normal in an attempt to compensate; they will make certain gestures like swallowing repeatedly, blinking rapidly or scratching themselves; they will touch their nose, mouth or ear with their hands; their voice will be a little higher in pitch and/or they look up and to the right, which stimulates the imagination part of the brain, instead of looking up and to the left, which is used to recall memories.

• You also need to learn to trust yourself. Trust your own intuition and, if something seems wrong, don't just ignore it. If you don't feel comfortable in a situation or with what someone is asking you to do, trust your gut and say no (like I should have done when asked to subscribe to that magazine).

But remember — there are good people in the world, and, just because you've been hurt before, that doesn't mean you should shut out everyone you meet. You could miss out on meeting a lot of wonderful people if you do that. Even after taking all these steps, it doesn't guarantee that you won't get hurt. But sometimes it's worth it to just take the leap.

Shelly Bullard writes on Mind Body Green, "Walling ourselves off from each other only perpetuates the problem. This does not keep us safe; it keeps us lonely."

"A semicolon represents a sentence the author could have ended, but chose not to. The sentence is your life and the author is you."

This is the mission statement of the movement Project Semicolon, and yesterday, thousands of people who self harm, are suicidal, suffer from depression, have anxiety, are going through a broken heart or are unhappy drew a semicolon on their wrists to signify that they are not giving up on life. This was the third year that people around the world did this on April 16 to raise awareness.

Holly Blades, one of the founders of Project Semicolon, said, "Your mental illness will tell you that your story is over, that you should just give up. I am here to tell you that is the farthest thing from the truth."

As a journalist, we're taught to always be concise. Short and to the point. But, for my personal life, I vow to throw this rule out the window.

I don't know about you, but I want my life to be one long run-on sentence, so long it would make my editors cringe. And hopefully my life will not have a period in it for about 90 years or so (and I mean a figurative period, not the one regarding a menstrual cycle, although I could live without that too).

Throw out all those grammatical rules you learned throughout school. No matter what trials may come your way, remember not to prematurely end your story. Remember the semicolon instead and keep living your life.

You never know what may be around the corner, making all of your troubles a distant memory and showing you that the beginning of your story led you here.